Snopes: On 6 February 2017, a website of uncertain origin named “The Tennessee Star” was born. At the time, it was unclear who funded or operated this “local newspaper,” which was largely filled with freely licensed content from organizations tied … Continue reading
Category Archives: chicanery
Meeting today. … Continue reading
Open Secrets: Newly obtained tax records shed additional light on the web of “dark money” organizations tied to President Donald Trump’s top judicial adviser that were used to funnel millions to organizations that boosted the Supreme Court nominations of Neil … Continue reading
CNN: The call sounds like it is coming from President Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign.It even uses a recording of the President’s voice: “I’m Donald Trump. Tonight I am asking you to defend our very dangerous southern border, out of … Continue reading
Reuters reports. … Continue reading
Paul Ryan USA Today oped: On Wednesday, in his testimony before the House Oversight Committee, Cohen for the first time provided details to the American people of precisely how Trump directed and coordinated these hush payments in violation of federal … Continue reading
WaPo: Leslie McCrae Dowless, a political operative at the center of a Republican congressional campaign in North Carolina tainted by evidence of ballot fraud, was indicted by a grand jury on seven counts, a prosecutor announced Wednesday.Dowless, who worked for … Continue reading
NYT: The dramatic public testimony to Congress on Wednesday morning by President Trump’s former lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, could intensify the legal issues facing the president in the criminal and civil investigations that are swirling around him, legal experts said.Mr. Cohen’s testimony … Continue reading
WSJ: Mr. Cohen’s planned testimony comes 13 months after the Journal first reported that Mr. Cohen paid $130,000 in October 2016 to former adult-film star Stephanie Clifford, known as Stormy Daniels, to buy her silence after she alleged having a sexual encounter … Continue reading
WaPo: The U.S. military blocked Internet access to an infamous Russian entity seeking to sow discord among Americans during the 2018 midterms, several U.S. officials said, a warning that the Kremlin’s operations against the United States are not cost-free.The strike … Continue reading
Michael Bitzer for The Monkey Cage. … Continue reading
Brian Murphy profiles the NC09 candidate. Assuming the new law requiring a primary holds up to any legal challenge, I’d be shocked if Harris runs again. (If the new primary law is challenged and ruled illegal, and Harris has to … Continue reading
CBS 17: Following the state Board of Elections hearing on fraud in the 9th Congressional district, Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman says she expects to take the case before a grand jury in the next month.Freeman said that case … Continue reading
NCSBE attorney @josh_lawson says the documents were specifically mentioned in the subpoena and within its scope. Lawson- "we have been aware of those documents that have never been produced for quite some time." #NC09— Joe Bruno (@JoeBrunoWSOC9) February 21, 2019 … Continue reading
WaPo: The son of Republican congressional candidate Mark Harris testified Wednesday that he warned his father repeatedly that he believed a political operative now at the center of an election-fraud investigation had previously used illegal tactics to win votes.John Harris, … Continue reading
Politico: Recent posts that have received widespread dissemination include racially inflammatory memes and messaging involving Harris, O’Rourke and Warren. In Warren’s case, a false narrative surfaced alleging that a blackface doll appeared on a kitchen cabinet in the background of … Continue reading
News and Observer: The Bladen County political operative at the center of possible election fraud in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District assured the top consultant for Republican Mark Harris’ campaign that he was running a legal operation throughout the 2018 … Continue reading
This paper is what Dowless gave them and told them to say, Britt says. pic.twitter.com/dJ9kBHolq2— Ely Portillo (@ESPortillo) February 18, 2019 … Continue reading
News & Observer: The stepdaughter of a Bladen County political operative detailed how she said his ballot harvesting operation worked on the first day of a hearing Monday into voting irregularities in the unresolved 2018 election in North Carolina’s 9th … Continue reading
Follow Joe Bruno at the hearing. I’ll be very surprised if the board does not vote for a new election given what we are seeing so far. … Continue reading
WaPo reports. … Continue reading
WRAL reports. … Continue reading
Daily Beast: Two teams of federal officials assembled to fight foreign election interference are being dramatically downsized, according to three current and former Department of Homeland Security officials. And now, those sources say they fear the department won’t prepare adequately … Continue reading
Adam Entous and Ronan Farrow in the New Yorker: Psy-Group’s larger ambition was to break into the U.S. election market. During the 2016 Presidential race, the company pitched members of Donald Trump’s campaign team on its ability to influence the … Continue reading
The DOJ press release headline refers to the worker as a “Board of Elections Election Official” but that seems incorrect. From an earlier HuffPost piece: The sole U.S. citizen facing charges ― Denslo Allen Paige, a 66-year-old Walmart worker who … Continue reading
AP: A reconstituted North Carolina elections board received a private preview Thursday of what investigators uncovered in their probe of absentee ballot irregularities in the country’s last unresolved congressional race. Chairman Bob Cordle said the new five-member State Board of … Continue reading
Potentially a big deal here: “In particular, the Government represents that aspects of its investigation remains ongoing, including those pertaining to or arising from Cohen’s campaign finance crimes.”A bad sentence for Individual 1 and the Trump Org execs who hatched … Continue reading
CBS News: There is no evidence to date of any foreign interference in the 2018 midterm elections, according to a new joint report released by the Justice and Homeland Security Departments on Tuesday. While specific conclusions remain classified, the report … Continue reading
NYT: In the subpoena, investigators also showed interest in whether any foreigners illegally donated to the committee, as well as whether committee staff members knew that such donations were illegal, asking for documents laying out legal requirements for donations. Federal … Continue reading
Deep dive from WaPo: At about 4 a.m. on Aug. 23, federal agents rousted Jose Solano-Rodriguez from his bed in the suburbs of Raleigh. A couple of hours later, three agents knocked on Hyo Suk George’s door as she fed her rabbits … Continue reading
Interesting. … Continue reading
The Curious Case of a Kentucky Cybersecurity Contract: In the months after the 2016 elections, state election administrators spent millions of dollars investigating and addressing the cyber intrusions that had penetrated voting systems in dozens of states. Kentucky Secretary of … Continue reading
ProPublica: In an appearance on MSNBC in July 2017, Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes expressed her vehement opposition to giving voter data to President Donald Trump’s voter fraud commission, which had requested it from election officials in all … Continue reading
I have written this piece for Slate. It begins: Why didn’t Special Counsel Robert Mueller charge self-proclaimed dirty trickster Roger Stone with violating campaign finance laws? And what does this say about Donald Trump Jr.’s potential exposure for his Trump … Continue reading
WaPo: A major focus of the probe has been whether Stone coordinated with WikiLeaks or its founder, Julian Assange, as the group published thousands of Democratic emails that prosecutors say were hacked by Russian operatives.Stone was not charged with any … Continue reading
NYT: Senator Doug Jones, the Democrat who was an unwitting beneficiary of misinformation tactics during a special election in Alabama in 2017, asked the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday to investigate the episodes. Mr. Jones made his formal request for … Continue reading
AP: Long before accusations of absentee ballot fraud in a small North Carolina county cast doubt on the results of a heated 2018 congressional race, a state elections investigator spent weeks probing whether the man at the center of the current scandal … Continue reading
NYT: The “Dry Alabama” Facebook page, illustrated with stark images of car wrecks and videos of families ruined by drink, had a blunt message: Alcohol is the devil’s work, and the state should ban it entirely. Along with a companion … Continue reading
Oped in USA Today. … Continue reading
WaPo: A secret effort to influence the 2017 Senate election in Alabama used tactics inspired by Russian disinformation teams, including the creation of fake accounts to deliver misleading messages on Facebook to hundreds of thousands of voters to help elect … Continue reading
AP: A planned hearing digging into allegations of possible ballot fraud in the country’s last undecided congressional race was scrapped Wednesday, with North Carolina’s governor blaming Republicans for not backing his plan to temporarily recreate the disbanded state elections board. … Continue reading
Fred Wertheimer & Norm Eisen USA Today oped: In asking Russia to find Clinton’s emails, presidential candidate Trump violated this statutory prohibition on seeking help from a foreign country to influence an election. Trump in essence called on a foreign adversary to … Continue reading
NYT: Reid Hoffman, the tech billionaire whose money was spent on Russian-style social media deception in a Senate race last year, apologized on Wednesday, saying in a statement that he had not approved the operation and did not support such tactics in American politics. … Continue reading
WaPo: Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said Thursday that his office is exploring whether disinformation tactics deployed against Republican Roy Moore during last year’s special election violated state campaign laws and said he was worried that the operation could have … Continue reading
Miles Park for NPR. … Continue reading
WRAL editorial. … Continue reading
AP: North Carolina’s top elections official issued an urgent plea nearly two years ago for the Trump administration to file criminal charges against the man now at the center of ballot fraud allegations that have thrown a 2018 congressional race … Continue reading
NYT: Senator Doug Jones of Alabama on Thursday said he was “outraged” to learn of deceptive online operations used by fellow Democrats to assist his election last year, and called for a federal investigation into the matter. He was responding … Continue reading
WaPo: North Carolina state election officials told federal prosecutors in January 2017 that they found evidence of efforts to manipulate the absentee ballot vote in rural Bladen County in the 2016 election and warned that such activities “will likely continue … Continue reading
Somehow missed this NYT story yesterday: As Russia’s online election machinations came to light last year, a group of Democratic tech experts decided to try out similarly deceptive tactics in the fiercely contested Alabama Senate race, according to people familiar … Continue reading